It's hard to admit it when you're 1.5 gb in the division, but it's looking more and more like this team simply doesn't have the pieces to compete for a championship. If Reyes, Delgado, and Beltran were all back at 100%, you might have a case. But what is the likelihood all three guys will be: (1) healthy; (2) at the same time; and (3) when it counts, meaning September and October? If the answer is, "not that likely," than this team is clearly a middling squad at best in terms of offense and slightly above average in terms of pitching (now that Ollie has completely broken down; Maine appears nowhere near healthy; and Putz' elbow is blown out).
Now, Omar was quoted as saying that this is a seller's market. With all the parity around the league right now, there are a lot of buyers willing to move meaningful pieces for anything that will help. Perhaps the Mets should be thinking about adding prospects instead of adding players like Nick Johnson or Aubrey Huff? If Adam Dunn is going to bring back top tier prospects, what might we get for Beltran, if his knee problems are not structural? What could we get for Reyes? Church is certainly young enough that someone might want to take a flyer on him, despite the fact it's hard to imagine him getting better than the average player he is. And if you could move Castillo's contract for a bag of balls it would be addition by subtraction.
I haven't been focused on the sellers side of the market: the young prospects that might be available if the Mets were willing to move their Major League talent, but I'm going to start.
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I do think a major change in the strategy is called for. Since Omar has become GM the primary focus has clearly been to bring in "proven veterans" who could add value immediately. Unfortunately, many of the players he's brought in were past their prime and injury-plagued. As a result, many of our prospects have been called up too early and called upon to do too much.
I personally say the cycle of believing this team is a legitimate contender and a world series appearance is right around the corner is killing us. This team is not a contender, and any useful strategy has to start there. Rather than trying to just find "that one piece" that will magically get us over the hump, a more realistic assessment about how weak this team is is in order. This team has less character, somewhat less talent, and far more injuries than can be present for a truly championship team. I personally would be willing to say '09 is a wash if it meant bringing in a slew of young prospects that we thought could lead the team in the next few years. In reality this season is most likely a wash anyway.
I would keep Wright, Santana and K-rod as the only untouchables. I'd be happy trading anyone else if we thought we were getting equal or better value in return.
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